


east of the sun, west of the moon

by aibari



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Arranged Marriage, Dasira, East of the Sun and West of the Moon AU, F/F, Fairy Tale Curses, Shapeshifter Daisy, The Magnus Archives Femslash Week, canon-typical Elias badness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22051339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aibari/pseuds/aibari
Summary: The Hunt knocked on the Institute's doors in summer. Basira had her bag packed and ready, waiting, as it stepped into the atrium, dark as night and smelling of blood and firewood. In the middle of its entourage was a wolf. It's taller than Basira, and its fur was thick and grey.“Basira,” it said, lips splitting to reveal its sharp and shining teeth, tongue catching jagged on the syllables of her name. “You may call me Daisy.”For day two of the Magnus Archives Femslash Week 2019.5: Fairy Tale.
Relationships: Basira Hussain/Alice "Daisy" Tonner
Comments: 19
Kudos: 48
Collections: The Magnus Archives Femslash Week 2019.5





	east of the sun, west of the moon

1.

It was spring when Basira Hussain stepped into the trap.

Elias slid her the contract with a bland smile. “We are, as always, grateful for your service,” he said, and then paused meaningfully. “It could only be you, Basira.”

She didn't read the pages in front of her. She didn't need to; she had done her research. The contract detailed an alliance between the Beholding and the Hunt in the driest possible language. Still, Basira enjoyed a heavy legal text more than the average person, and reading up on the contract would have been entertaining if it hadn't been about _her._

In the end, it was a contract detailing a joining of blood.

Metaphorically, if nothing else. In these stories, it always is, though the shape of it changes.

In Elias' spotless office, in the papers laid out in front of her, it looked a lot like marriage.

She signed the contract. In the end, there was no real choice.

-

2.

The Hunt knocked on the Institute's doors in summer. Basira had her bag packed and ready, waiting, as it stepped into the atrium, dark as night and smelling of blood and firewood. In the middle of its entourage was a wolf. It's taller than Basira, and its fur was thick and grey.

“Basira,” it said, lips splitting to reveal its sharp and shining teeth, tongue catching jagged on the syllables of her name. “You may call me Daisy.”

“Daisy,” said Basira, and kept herself as impassive as she could.

Daisy bent her front paws down until they were nose to nose. “Get on my back.”

Her tone did not invite an argument. Basira climbed on. Once she was safely seated, Daisy straightened again, all coiled, powerful muscle under Basira's thighs.

They left the Institute.

-

“Are you afraid?” Daisy asked her. They were running; they had been running for some time.

“No,” Basira said, and it was true.

Daisy hummed approvingly, low in her throat. She said, “As long as you hold on to me, you have no reason to be.”

“Hmm,” Basira agreed, and twisted her fingers deeper into the fur of Daisy's neck. It was softer than it looked.

Daisy picked up the pace, paws pounding on concrete, then asphalt, then forest ground.

-

The fortress rose out of the depths of the forest, dark as night and hewn from solid, seamless stone. The gates opened for them without a sound and slammed shut behind them with a reverberating bang.

"This is the realm of the Hunt," said Daisy, as Basira slid off her back and onto the tiled stone floor. "Don't run. Don't go where you're not meant to."

"All right," Basira said, and did not think about Elias, or what he might want her to do. Daisy pinned her with her predator's stare.

"Right," Daisy said, after what felt like years.

Then she gave her a silver bell, inlaid with an intricate pattern that, on inspection, depicted people and animals and monsters, all running in some eternal chase.

"Ring if you need anything," she said, and left her to her own devices.

-

Basira explored the fortress bit by bit, carefully combing through corridors and cramped stairwells, and then it was night. When she rang the silver bell, she found herself in a bedchamber.

"... All right," she murmured, and went to bed. As she turned out the light, Daisy came slinking in the door.

"Don't worry," she said, eyes shining like moons in the darkness. "It's just me."

When she joined Basira on the bed, she was human.

Basira could not tell what her face looked like.

-

Time passed, and the days went by in much the same way as the first. Basira would spend her days exploring the fortress, sometimes with Daisy but mostly alone, and at night, after she turned out the lights, Daisy would join her in bed wearing a different shape.

It lit a curiosity in her, a yearning to _see_ what Daisy's human form looked like, and not just feel pressed warm against her in the middle of the night.

She told herself she had no way of doing so.

It was a lie, but for reasons she could not name, it felt like a necessary one.

Instead, she catalogued as much as she could of Daisy in the dark: Her hair was short when Basira slid her fingers through it. Her ears were small, and she twitched irritably when Basira ran her fingers over their soft, rounded edges. Her nose was uneven; Basira thought it must have been broken at least twice. And further –

Well.

There were many things that Basira carefully did not allow herself to think.

-

3.

The contract stipulated that Basira visit the Institute at least once a year. The first visit was set in autumn, as the leaves turned blood red and wolf's eye yellow.

“That Bouchard prick,” Daisy whispered into her ear the night before, as they lay tangled up and close under the sheets. “Don't let him talk to you alone.”

Basira pulled back to frown at her. “He won't let me avoid him.”

Daisy stared back, unwavering, rock-solid, uncompromising. Basira could not stop herself from leaning over to kiss her for that look, though she knew Daisy would not let it last long.

“It will ruin us,” Daisy said, when they were no longer kissing. Her voice was rough.

It would ruin them.

She might have been talking about the Hunt or the two of them; it did not matter.

Basira suspected both were true.

-

Elias' office looked just the same as it had before she left.

He smiled at her, unbearably smug, as every other Institute member filed out of the room.

“Now,” he said, “ **tell me what you know about the Hunt**.”

The compulsion split her open, had her spilling secrets into the dry air.

It felt like bleeding out, like vomiting, dry heaving. Elias watched her, unmoving.

“Thank you, Basira,” he said when she was done. He pushed her a glass of lukewarm water. She took it and drank it and _hated_ him.

“Is that all?” she asked. She imagined punching him over and over until her fists were bloody. She imagined he could tell that was what she was thinking.

“Not quite,” said Elias. He reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out a single, white candle and a metal lighter with an eye engraved into its surface. “You've deserved a little reward. I imagine the fortress of the Hunt is a place where it can sometimes be quite difficult to … _see_.”

-

Night fell. Daisy slept next to her, but Basira was wide awake, still full of that same horribly curiosity.

She tried to tell herself she had no way of seeing what Daisy looked like, but her thoughts kept returning to the candle Elias had given her. In the end, the need to know became overwhelming, too powerful to resist.

She rose from the bed. She lit the candle. She held it over Daisy, so she could see her.

The woman in the bed was just as stunning as Basira had imagined, all strong jaw and sharp cheekbones. She was so lovely that Basira could not stop staring at her.

In her distraction, she forgot to mind the candle.

Three drops of wax fell from it and landed on Daisy's chest.

She startled awake at the heat, and then her eyes met Basira's and went very wide.

“I _told_ you it would ruin us,” she said, and her voice was by turns a snarl and a desperate whine. She took Basira's wrist, her grip a vice. “When I was young, I was cursed by a witch. If you'd held out the full year, it would have broken the curse.”

“I'm sorry,” Basira said, eyes stinging.

“Sorry means nothing. We're done,” Daisy said. Tears ran down her cheeks. “This was my one chance. I'm all hers now; I have to go to her.”

“I'll find you again,” Basira said. “Can I ask – where can I find you? How do I get there?”

“East of the sun,” Daisy said, with a shaky, bitter laugh, “and west of the moon. You'll never find it; you'll never find a road that'll take you there.”

Desperately, Basira embraced her, holding on as hard as she could, praying that if only she could hold her close enough –

The next morning, Daisy was gone, as was the fortress. Basira was lying on a patch of grass within the deep, dark forest. The blades beneath her were covered in hoarfrost.

Her bag was lying next to her. She stared at it for a very long time.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I don't know why there are so many people in Norwegian fairy tales marrying forest animals that turn out to be EXTREMELY handsome men, but I'm happy for them. I was originally thinking of going with Beauty and the Beast for Dasira, but East of the Sun really touches on being in a situation that has some elements that are _inherently_ coercive (see: Elias' whole deal! Marriage when you were a woman in 18th century Norway!) but still finding love within that framework.  
> 2\. This is technically just the first half of this fairy tale, but I just didn't have time for more, and this felt like a good end point - sorry it's a bit of a downer! I promise the hypothetical continuation is happier! (And has like. 300% more old women giving good advice. This is a _fairy tale_ , after all.) If you're interested in reading more, please let me know!  
> 4\. If you want, you can find me on [tumblr](https://aibari.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/aibari)!


End file.
